SSC CGL Previous Year Question Paper with Answers PDF: Quick Answer
You can attempt 25 SSC CGL 2025 Tier-1 previous year papers right here on BookOfExams: 5 full papers (100 questions each) and 20 section papers (25 questions each), covering 5 shifts held on 12, 13 and 14 September 2025, each with the official answer key as labelled on the site. Every paper is playable with a timer, instant scoring and explanations, so you do not need to download anything to practise a real shift. Papers from other 2025 shifts are linked below as PDFs hosted by other preparation sites, because this site does not host them yet. As of 7 November 2026, no SSC CGL 2026 Tier-1 paper is hosted as a playable paper on this site: the 2026 Tier-1 examination ended on 30 October 2026 and its provisional answer key and response sheets were released on 4 November 2026 (objection window 4–7 November 2026, 9:00 PM), but the 2026 papers have not yet been added as playable papers here. The Tier-1 result has not been published.
Read this first (as of 7 November 2026): SSC does not publish a single official PDF of each shift paper on its website. Candidates get a response sheet and answer key through their own login, and shift papers then circulate through preparation sites. On this site, the 2025 papers below are stored as files marked "official" with the official answer key. Treat the playable papers as the real 2025 shift papers as labelled on this site, and treat every PDF link in the "other shifts" table as a third-party copy that you should check against the answer key before trusting it. Cycle labels matter: the playable papers are from the 2025 cycle, not the 2026 cycle. Do not mix the two when you compare difficulty or cut-offs.
SSC CGL Tier-1 Exam Pattern for Previous Year Papers
Every Tier-1 previous year paper follows the same pattern. Knowing it before you open a paper stops you from wasting a timed attempt on the wrong settings.
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Intelligence and Reasoning | 25 | 50 | 15 minutes (sectional timer) |
| General Awareness | 25 | 50 | 15 minutes (sectional timer) |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 25 | 50 | 15 minutes (sectional timer) |
| English Comprehension | 25 | 50 | 15 minutes (sectional timer) |
| Total | 100 | 200 | 60 minutes |
Each correct answer carries 2 marks and each wrong answer loses 0.5 marks. The four sections run on separate 15-minute timers in the current pattern, so you cannot carry spare time from one section into the next. The playable full papers on this site use a 60-minute duration; attempt each section inside its own 15-minute block if you want exam-real practice. For the full current pattern, including Tier-2, read the SSC CGL exam pattern 2026 note and the SSC CGL syllabus 2026 note.
Tier-2 is a separate examination. The 2026 Tier-2 examination is tentatively expected in December 2026, with no date notified as of 7 November 2026. No Tier-2 previous year paper is hosted as a playable test in the tables below, because the playable files on this site for the 2025 cycle are Tier-1 papers. Do not buy or download a file labelled "CGL 2026 Tier-2 paper" — no such paper exists yet.
SSC CGL 2025 Tier-1 Full Papers: Attempt Online
These are the complete 100-question papers, one per shift. Attempt a full paper only when you can sit for 60 uninterrupted minutes. Start with the shift whose date is closest to your preparation level, then work through the rest in date order so you can track whether your score is rising or flat.
| Date and shift | Paper | Questions | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 September 2025, Shift 1 (9:00 AM) | SSC CGL 2025 Tier 1 Question Paper 12 September Shift 1 | 100 | 60 minutes |
| 12 September 2025, Shift 2 (12:30 PM) | SSC CGL 2025 Tier 1 Question Paper 12 September Shift 2 | 100 | 60 minutes |
| 12 September 2025, Shift 3 (4:00 PM) | SSC CGL 2025 Tier 1 Question Paper 12 September Shift 3 | 100 | 60 minutes |
| 13 September 2025, Shift 2 (12:30 PM) | SSC CGL 2025 Tier 1 Question Paper 13 September Shift 2 | 100 | 60 minutes |
| 14 September 2025, Shift 1 (9:00 AM) | SSC CGL 2025 Tier 1 Question Paper 14 September Shift 1 | 100 | 60 minutes |
Each full paper carries the official answer key as labelled on this site. After you finish, read every explanation for the questions you got wrong and for the questions you guessed right. A guessed-right answer is a gap you have not found yet, and in a 100-question paper with negative marking it is the gap most likely to cost you marks on exam day.
SSC CGL 2025 Tier-1 Section Papers: Practise One Section at a Time
If a full paper feels too long, or if one section is clearly weaker than the rest, use the section papers. Each one is 25 questions in 15 minutes, taken from the same shift as the full paper above it. Use them for daily drills: one section a day, same time every day, with a short review immediately after.
| Shift | Reasoning | General Awareness | Quantitative Aptitude | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 September, Shift 1 | Reasoning | General Awareness | Quantitative Aptitude | English |
| 12 September, Shift 2 | Reasoning | General Awareness | Quantitative Aptitude | English |
| 12 September, Shift 3 | Reasoning | General Awareness | Quantitative Aptitude | English |
| 13 September, Shift 2 | Reasoning | General Awareness | Quantitative Aptitude | English |
| 14 September, Shift 1 | Reasoning | General Awareness | Quantitative Aptitude | English |
A common mistake is to attempt the same section from all five shifts in one sitting. That trains recognition, not recall. Spread the five shifts of one section across five days, and mix in a full paper at the end of the week so the sections stay connected in your head the way they are connected in the examination.
SSC CGL Previous Year Question Papers from Other 2025 Shifts (PDF)
The 2025 Tier-1 examination ran through late September 2025, well beyond the five shifts hosted on this site. Papers from other shifts circulate as PDFs on preparation sites. The links below were checked on 1 November 2026 and led to a paper for the shift named. They are third-party copies, not files on ssc.gov.in, so download them only if you need a shift this site does not host, and cross-check any doubtful answer against the official answer key for that shift.
| Shift | PDF source |
|---|---|
| 15 September 2025, Shift 1 | FreeJobAlert PDF |
| 23 September 2025, Shift 3 | Prepp paper page |
| 24 September 2025, Shift 1 | Prepp paper page |
| 25 September 2025, Shift 2 | ExamGoal PDF |
| 25 September 2025, Shift 3 | Prepp paper page |
If a link stops working, search the shift date and shift number together with "SSC CGL 2025 Tier 1 question paper" rather than trusting the first PDF you find. Some pages reuse a 2025 heading for an older paper, and some "2026" pages published before the 2026 examination are simply the 2025 paper relabelled. The date inside the paper header, not the page heading, is what tells you which shift you are looking at.
SSC CGL Previous Year Papers Before 2025
No playable previous year paper from 2024 or earlier is hosted on this site as a full shift paper, and this page does not pretend otherwise. For older papers, two honest routes exist. First, use the topic-wise previous year question sets on this site, which collect real questions by topic across years — for example analogy questions, average questions, coding-decoding questions, active and passive voice questions and blood relations questions. Second, use the free mock tests on the SSC CGL mock test hub for timed practice, and treat them as practice, not as previous year papers. Chapter-wise collections from preparation sites exist for 2022–2025, but their links change often, so they are not listed here as permanent downloads.
Do not pay for a "complete 2016–2025 PDF bundle" without checking a sample shift first. Many bundles mix Tier-1 and Tier-2 questions, drop the answer key, or include questions from other examinations. One real shift attempted honestly teaches you more than ten mixed bundles skimmed quickly.
How to Use SSC CGL Previous Year Papers
Attempt a paper the way you will attempt the examination. Sit with a timer, no phone, no notes, and the four sections in order. Mark every question you are unsure about as you go, so your review afterwards is about decisions, not memory. When the timer ends, stop, even if two questions are left. The score that matters is the score under time pressure, not the score you could reach with an extra half hour.
Review in three passes. First, re-solve every wrong answer without looking at the explanation, and write down why your first method failed. Second, check the explanations for the questions you guessed right. Third, list the topics where you lost more than two marks in a single section, and practise those topics with the section papers above before you attempt another full paper. A second full paper attempted before the review is finished usually repeats the same mistakes at the same speed.
Track only three numbers across papers: total score out of 200, marks lost to wrong answers, and marks left unattempted. If wrong-answer losses are rising, you are guessing too much. If unattempted marks are rising, your speed in one section is the problem, and the section papers are the fix. Compare your scores with the SSC CGL cut off note only after you have attempted at least three full papers, because a single shift can be easier or harder than the average, and normalised scores, not raw scores, decide shortlisting.
SSC CGL Previous Year Question Paper FAQs
Are the papers on this page official SSC papers?
The 25 playable papers are the 2025 Tier-1 shift papers as stored on this site, each marked with the official answer key. SSC itself gives candidates a response sheet and answer key through its login system rather than publishing one combined PDF per shift, so the playable papers and the third-party PDFs linked above are the practical way to practise real shifts. Nothing on this page is a mock test relabelled as a previous year paper: mock tests live on the SSC CGL mock test hub and are labelled as practice there.
Where is the SSC CGL 2026 previous year paper?
It does not exist yet as a playable paper on this site. The 2026 Tier-1 examination ran from 30 September to 30 October 2026, and the provisional answer key and response sheets were released on 4 November 2026 (objection window 4–7 November 2026, 9:00 PM); the Tier-1 result has not been published. Any page offering a "2026 paper PDF" today is offering a 2025 paper, a mock test, or a guess — the 2026 question papers are available only through each candidate's own login on ssc.gov.in. This page will be updated when the 2026 papers are added as playable papers here.
How many shifts were held for SSC CGL 2025 Tier-1?
The examination ran in three shifts a day through late September 2025. This site hosts five of those shifts as playable papers. The "other shifts" table above links PDFs for five more shifts. Shift difficulty varies, and SSC normalises marks across shifts, so do not rank shifts by raw scores alone.
Is there a PDF download for the papers on this site?
The playable papers are designed to be attempted online with a timer and instant scoring. For offline practice, use the PDF links in the "other shifts" table, or print a section paper's questions from your browser after opening it. Do not download PDFs from unfamiliar sites that ask for payment or personal details first.
Do these papers cover Tier-2?
No. Tier-2 has a different pattern: a longer Paper-1 with a computer knowledge module and a data entry test, plus separate Statistics and Finance papers for some posts. The SSC CGL exam pattern 2026 note explains the Tier-2 structure, and the computer knowledge test syllabus note covers the module that Tier-1 papers do not test.
What score should I aim for in a previous year paper?
Aim for a consistent score across three papers rather than one high score. Check the year-wise cut-off tables in the SSC CGL cut off note for the category and post group you are targeting, then add a margin of 10 to 15 marks for safety, because cut-offs move with vacancies and normalisation. A single paper 20 marks above the last cut-off does not mean you are safe; three papers in a narrow band above it do.
Sources
- Staff Selection Commission portal, ssc.gov.in — result, answer key and response sheet notices (candidate login; no combined shift-paper PDF published).
- Prepp, SSC CGL 2025 Tier-1 paper pages for 23, 24 and 25 September 2025 shifts (links in the table above; checked 1 November 2026).
- ExamGoal, SSC CGL Tier-1 25 September 2025 Shift 2 PDF (link in the table above; checked 1 November 2026).
- FreeJobAlert, SSC CGL 2025 Tier-1 15 September 2025 Shift 1 PDF (link in the table above; checked 1 November 2026).
- This site's own test files on live
origin/main, verified 7 November 2026: 25 files, full papers 100 questions / 60 minutes, section papers 25 questions / 15 minutes, each marked official with the official answer key.
Last checked: 7 November 2026. This page will be updated when SSC CGL 2026 Tier-1 papers are added as playable papers on this site, and when further 2025 shifts are added.